Sonnets to Orpheus

Rainer Maria Rilke. North Point Press, $22 (144pp) ISBN 978-0-86547-611-0

With acclaimed versions of The Duino Elegies and Uncollected Poems already in print, Edward Snow's historic rendering of the Rilke oeuvre gets one step closer to completion with Sonnets to Orpheus. Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) composed the first set of 26 sonnets just before completing the monumental elegies, and the second 29 just after. Rendered here without rhyme and with German facing text, Snow makes clear why the sonnets are ""Sayable only by the singer./ Audible only by the god.""

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